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Bordeaux moved to Spain... any more info?

I attended a tasting on Saturday of some Italian wines, all from Antinori. Very interesting it was too.

While I was there I got talking to someone and the general topic of Spanish wines came up (it was a wideranging conversation). He said how, around 100 years ago, Bordeaux failed (crops I'd imagine) and all production moved to Spain.

I don't get how this could've happened. Did they just randomly change the varietals used for Bordeaux for a few vintages? How did they decide which Chateaux took over which vineyards? Where abouts in Spain did they use?

This just seems so far away from our world of strict regulation over wine production :D

Dan

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Dan Gravell
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I hope I have this right.....

In the 1860s or so the phylloxera epidemic hit Bordeaux (phylloxera is an aphid that attacks roots of vines). Needing wine, some Bordeaux merchants turned to Rioja. And some Bordeaux growers moved there, as Rioja wasn't affected by phylloxera. Rioja was suddenly a very important wine region. Then in 1890s or early 20th century phylloxera finally made it to Spain. By then, Bordeaux vintners had learned to graft their vines onto native American rootstock (phylloxera-resistant) , so Bordeaux was back in full-swing. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

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Dale Williams

They had the name, but no grapes, as explained by others.

Somewhere back then, an extremely large number of grapes were acceptable to be used as bordeaux(more than 10, and maybe more than

15).

It was common practice for the French grand crus of Burgundy to use outside grapes until the mid 1950s, at least. Late 50's burgundy was frequently very watery and Rhonestarted it's rise to present prominence in late 50"s

When some rule or another went into effect, the Algerian wine industry collapsed.

"More beaulajois is sold >I attended a tasting on Saturday of some Italian wines, all from

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gerald

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